Awkward Wealth

[FUEGO]

After the caviar incident at TJ's, I stopped by the Mexican grocery store to grab some ingredients for my chile verde (tomatillos, chiles poblanos, cilantro, that sort of thing). I had my credit card in hand about to pay when the cashier asks me in Spanish if I was paying in cash. I thought it a strange question, so I started up a conversation (in Spanish) about paying in cash versus credit to see if there was a cash discount. No, there wasn't.

She asked me because she thought I was paying with EBT / food stamps due to the card I had in my hand. I think they get a lot more EBT payments at that store than credit card payments. She had to ring up my food differently if I was paying with food stamps. The food stamp food doesn't have the same tax rate is what I understood.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO I'm not really interested in eating it, but DW wanted to try it, or maybe put it on homemade sushi. The Trader Joe's where A works is on the border between the somewhat poor part of town (where I and A live, less than a mile way from TJ's) and the very very wealthy part of town. I can imagine A encounters plenty of people who are wealthy (or at least spend as if they had a ton of money). I guess my question was par for the course in her store.

If you really care, you can buy it here:

Amazon.com : Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!) : Sevruga Caviars And Roes : Grocery & Gourmet Food
Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!)


(Note the free shipping!)

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational It just HAD to be caviar that you couldn't find, hehe! The quintessential luxury food.

I could have been a total ass and responded to A "No caviar? That's cool. They'll probably have some on board our cruise to Mexico and Belize next week. And besides, we wouldn't be able to finish the caviar before we left for the cruise anyway. I hate to let caviar go bad. Good thing it's not in stock!"

Cruise =$1290 total for 2 cabins, last minute deal. No clue if they actually have caviar on board (other than the tiny roe around the sushi wraps).

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 If you really care, you can buy it here: Amazon.com : Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!) : Sevruga Caviars And Roes : Grocery & Gourmet Food Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!) (Note the free shipping!)

Thanks for the heads up. With free shipping it's still a little too much for my meager means. About $18,763 too much.

In all seriousness, I'll probably try the nearby Korean grocery store. I've heard that's the place to go for fish eggs and good sashimi fish.

[bssc]

I remember offending someone by not getting any stimulus checks but it was online and I never heard from them again.

As for caviar, I tried it but the version I had was more salt than eggs.

[Lakewood90712]

"Crap, I can't find any caviar."

Looks like the sanctions against Russia over invading the Ukraine are indeed working , as I think Russia is a major exporter of caviar.

[Live And Learn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO I'm thinking about throwing some handyman work to the husband.

I would have felt awkward also, and probably would have waited for someone else to ask or not ask at all for the caviar.

I do hope you are kidding about asking the husband to do handyman work for you. That would probably be totally embarrassing for him.

[omni550]

A few years before I early retired (but I was already counting down the days with a notation on the corner of my office calendar), I was sitting around chatting with my boss and a fellow employee. This boss just loved to "live large" and was bragging about her recently refinanced Jumbo mortgage. She turned to me and asked me details about my mortgage. After an awkward silence, I said I didn't have one.
You could've heard a pin drop.

omni

[gozer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever A question I am 100 percent sure I will never ask: where can I find the caviar?

Ditto. I might ask about Pop Tarts, but not caviar.

I worked at a grocery when I was a teenager. My store was on the border of a fairly poor area in town, so a high percentage of our customers were on some sort of government assistance. Caviar was not big seller. Once in four years, I was asked where it was. As I remember it, the first thing my very tactful 17 year old self said was, "Do you really eat that?".

[Amethyst]

We are surrounded by people who have far more resources than we do. As someone who worked in budgeting and costing for a while, I know what many of them do for a living, and how much that usually pays. I'm also familiar with the demographics of our extremely wealthy county.

We joke that one of these days, we will be asked to park our small old American car somewhere other than the gym parking lot, because it is embarrassing the high-end imports.

Amethyst

[Amethyst]

Funny story - when shopping at the foo-foo grocery store, I accidentally touched "EBT" instead of "CREDIT" and the cashier had to void the transaction and start over. I apologized and he confided that he routinely saw "EBT" cards used to purchase high-end groceries such as shrimp and crabmeat.

Amethyst

Quote:

Originally Posted by gozer Ditto. I might ask about Pop Tarts, but not caviar. I worked at a grocery when I was a teenager. My store was on the border of a fairly poor area in town, so a high percentage of our customers were on some sort of government assistance. Caviar was not big seller. Once in four years, I was asked where it was. As I remember it, the first thing my very tactful 17 year old self said was, "Do you really eat that?".

[LoneAspen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 If you really care, you can buy it here: Amazon.com : Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!) : Sevruga Caviars And Roes : Grocery & Gourmet Food Classic Grey Sevruga Caviar - 4.00 lb. / 1800 gr. (Free Overnight Shipping!) (Note the free shipping!)

ROFL - Be sure and read the customer reviews for this.

Quote:

Good, but eventually gave my dogs the squirts

[Sarah in SC]

Fuego, I will come up there and do an intervention if you hire out handyman chores! If DH got wind of that, next thing you know he'd be balking at being treated like a rented mule!

Nope! Take the casserole over there and enjoy that cruise!

[Looking4Ward]

Good thing you weren't looking for the Grey Poupon.....

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever A question I am 100 percent sure I will never ask: where can I find the caviar?

As an Australian I encountered some 50 years ago said "This jam tastes fishy".

[gozer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst Funny story - when shopping at the foo-foo grocery store, I accidentally touched "EBT" instead of "CREDIT" and the cashier had to void the transaction and start over. I apologized and he confided that he routinely saw "EBT" cards used to purchase high-end groceries such as shrimp and crabmeat. Amethyst

In the old days of "food stamps", I saw expensive foods purchased with them. I probably saw more junk food purchased than expensive food. I also saw some people with food stamps selling them for 50 cents on the dollar in front of the store the first week of every month. So it was always possible that the person buying the groceries was not actually a food stamp recipient. It was only a small percent of users, but it did occur.

Our store pushed your cart out and loaded your bags into your car. I remember one lady that bought over $100 in nice steaks and I was loading them into her Mercedes convertible. I suspect she had bought the food stamps she used.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Live And Learn I would have felt awkward also, and probably would have waited for someone else to ask or not ask at all for the caviar. I do hope you are kidding about asking the husband to do handyman work for you. That would probably be totally embarrassing for him.

I was in a hurry since I had groceries in the car, and didn't think about it until I had already asked her.

"A" actually suggested to me that her husband is available for handyman work and would love to have the work to make money and to get him out of the house and out of his slump. He was a jack of all trades handyman type guy for a property management firm for many years before recently losing his job.

Would it really be embarrassing to ask him to do paid work for me (serious question)? I hadn't considered that. I live in a mix of blue collar and white collar neighborhood, and lots of folks in the 'hood are in construction (many have their own small businesses doing handyman work, roofing, painting, cabinets, etc). Would it be any more embarrassing than asking an out of work IT guy to fix my computer?

[steelyman]

You could always take the Austin Powers approach and say, "Get in my belly!"

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Fuego, I will come up there and do an intervention if you hire out handyman chores! If DH got wind of that, next thing you know he'd be balking at being treated like a rented mule! Nope! Take the casserole over there and enjoy that cruise!

I have this stubborn leak in my roof that won't quit. I'm about to replace the entire roof just to get rid of it, but thought it might be worth a shot at getting some expert outside counsel instead of me trying to figure it out. If Big D wants to come up here and give it a fix, I'll pay for gas for the bus and might even let you guys sleep inside in the guest room!

[timo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO "do you know where the fish eggs or caviar is located?".

It is interesting what we imagine people think. She may have thought something like I would have "I can't believe you eat that stuff" and not given it another thought. (I'd literally have to be starving to eat that, Foie Gras, or any other innards, including the deep fried ones. yikes!!!!).

That said, anyone with any money at all will run into this sort of situation. And it probably will become more common.
For instance, I was enlisted by DW to fix her coworker/friend's family computer. It was totally obsolete and unfixable, the kind I had already recycled. We ended up giving them an old PC I had just quit using, plus an older laptop that was still good [because the pc also was partially obsolete].....If I knew what I know now, I would have told them to buy a cheap Chromebook.

The laptop ended up being stolen when a kid left it in her car.